Barack Obama awards Medal of Honour to US Army sergeant

A U.S. Army staff sergeant who stepped into the line of fire to help a pair of
comrades on the Afghan battlefield received the Medal of Honour on Tuesday –
America's top military award.

7:00AM GMT 17 Nov 2010

President Barack Obama awarded the medal to Salvatore Giunta at a White House ceremony, making the 25-year-old Iowan the first living service member from the Iraq or Afghanistan wars to be so honoured. Seven others have received the award posthumously.

Mr Obama called Giunta a solider who is "as humble as he is heroic" and said the ceremony was a "joyous occasion."

The Army says Sgt. Giunta was a rifle team leader in eastern Afghanistan's Korengal Valley when his squad was split in two after an ambush by insurgents. While under fire, Sgt. Giunta pulled a fellow soldier to cover and rescued another who was being dragged away by the enemy.